A federal judge on Wednesday tossed out a series of lawsuits filed by alleged Iraqi victims of the contractor once known as Blackwater USA, but is allowing the plaintiffs to refile their claims.

In a 56-page ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria, Va., dismissed claims filed by 64 plaintiffs — including the estates of 19 people who died — who says Blackwater employees engaged in indiscriminate killings and beatings. The lawsuits also claim the company, now known as Xe, "fostered a culture of lawlessness" while it held a State Department contract to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

Ellis is allowing most of the plaintiffs to refile, but only if they will be able to prove that employees engaged in intentional killings and beatings. He said a pattern of recklessness or a culture of lawlessness is not enough to sustain an allegation of war crimes under the federal law that governs the issue, the Alien Tort Statute.

Xe's lawyers had argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed under any circumstances because the allegations involve political questions that cannot be resolved by the judiciary and because private entities cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statute. Ellis rejected those arguments.

Both sides said they were pleased with the ruling. Plaintiffs' lawyer Susan Burke said she will refile. She has said in previous hearings that she will be able to prove that Blackwater's actions were intentional, not just reckless.

Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke said in a statement that "we are confident that they (plaintiffs) will not be able to meet the high standard specified in Judge Ellis' opinion."

The ruling comes as a federal judge in Washington is considering what evidence to allow in a criminal prosecution of five Blackwater security guards accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007.

Actually this is not the case. I think they put this out to make everyone bite but if you look closer you’ll see that the Jews are fucking over Blackwater afterall: http://rawstory.com/2009/10/judge-won/

"We were very pleased with the ruling," says Susan Burke, the Iraqis' lead attorney, was quoted as saying. A Blackwater spokesman said, ""We are confident that [the plaintiffs] will not be able to meet the high standard specified in Judge Ellis' opinion."

I really don't know what you (Prothink) are getting at. I'm seeing that the case is thrown out until the plaintiffs meet more stringent standards of evidence. According to Blackwater, this is not likely, therefore it looks like Blackwater will win (above quote is from your reference).

It probably isn't likely that the family members of the victims will be able to meet these "stringent standards".

I do know that DynCorp has won contracts in Afghanistan over Blackwater. http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/30/dyncorp-kbr-afghanistan-business-logistics-dyncorp.html

However, Blackwater has been getting gigs in Pakistanhttp://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=201291